Pointless inventions

[Mich the Tester]

Ronco Button Mate

I just googled that; looks quite handy and I think I'll order one for emergency repairs of jacket and shirt buttons.

[zeitghost]

No. Women put high heels on because they think it makes them more attractive, but really it doesn't make the slightest bit of difference. So it makes them 5'5'' instead of 5'3''? Who's counting?
The only thing they are useful for is as an indication of whether a lady is aht on't pull.

Especially if they're red.

[Ignis Fatuus]

Or facilities, services etc.

Dentistry is one, as we have discussed recently. The oldest con in the book and about as useful as sorcery.

Another is stereo sound. Multiple speakers are good but music doesn't sound better if different parts of it come from each speaker. Somebody dreamed up this idea in the 60s to make their equipment sound advanced and we have been buying these things without questioning it ever since.

Any others?

Stereo sound recording was invented in the 1930s by underrated inventor A.D. Blumlein.

It is not pointless, the point is to seem to hear a given sound from a particular position, e.g. different instruments in different positions as they might be laid out in a live performance, or different actors in a position corresponding to where you see them on the set. If all you hear is different parts of the sound coming from each speaker, something is defective, for example the polarity of your speaker wiring.

[Ignis Fatuus]

lettuce spinner

Good for drying tights.

[xoggoth]

If all you hear is different parts of the sound coming from each speaker, something is defective

Think it's more the way some recordings are made. Some of the music I listen to via headphones while on boring exercise machine in garage (the wife won't let me put speakers on full blast) has bits that go entirely into one ear.

The normal situation it's meant to reproduce is more of a limitation of real life, a defect in my view. Nature gave us directionality so we could stalk wildebeest in the forest but how does it improve music?

[zeitghost]

That's down to the way it was mixed, Xogg.

Some of these things are ok on speakers, but, as you say, are positively disturbing on cans.

[ilovehr]

The ultimate pointless invention

Has to be the motion sensing hand soap dispenser:

So they get you to buy these things as they mean you don't have to touch the "dirty germ ridden" soap dispenser pump. Surely you only touch the pump to dispense soap to disinfect your hands, killing any germs you may have inadvertenly picked up by touching the pump in the first place!

This load of money making bolox has become a bit of a personal tirade after I spent about half an hour trying to persuade my mum that they had seen her coming when she bought one......

Dettol No-Touch Hand Wash System

[Doggy Styles]

I see what you're getting at, ilovehr.

[shaunbhoy]

Think it's more the way some recordings are made.

There is little point, when you finally reach an age where they are affordable, buying expensive classy luxury speakers, when by that time you are reduced to getting by with pound-shop ears.

Just thought I'd throw that in..........

[realityhack]

Chopsticks.